![]() ![]() Hell my mom is pretty feminine and even a bit of what you’d call a terf unfortunately (she’s a great person but just gets riled up reading JK Rowling tweets and taking them for fact) and she still says that she feels like a man whenever she writes. Also I feel like the category of tomboy or butch has sort of been eliminated and now it’s just being trans. I knew that all the good authors were men! Kidding but seriously I see a lot of points being made about women authors being ftm trans and I’m sure occasionally this was the case but doesn’t it seem a little sexist? Maybe she just hated the constraints women commonly faced and as a result strived for masculine freedoms such as writing? Like associating the sexism women faced with being a woman itself and seeing being male as escape from all that. There's a reason I loved characters like Jo March, I recognised myself in them, despite living in very different times some things remained the same. I wanted to be a person - but from where I was sitting this was a privilege only afforded to boys. I didn't want to be a sex object or a housewife. I just meant I found the expectations on me restrictive and uncomfortable. I hadn't yet discovered feminism, so didn't have the vocabulary to explain my feelings, instead I'd say I felt more like a boy than a girl. That snippet might make people think they knew something about my gender identity, especially knowing that at that time I'd cut my hair short, and wore androgynous clothes.īut the rest of the conversation was me talking about the pressure to look pretty and be sexy, and how I was discouraged from doing things I enjoyed because they were seen as boys hobbies. Somewhere there's a recording of me being "interviewed" by a school friend, and I was lamenting having been born female, and talking about how I would change to being a boy in a heartbeat if I could. Alcott was just as susceptible to those pressures as anyone else, especially as women's role in society was even more restricted in her lifetime. I know so many women who've tried to get away from gendered expectations by saying "I'm not like other girls". Again, not to say that these women were actually men, but to say that they couldn't and wouldn't conform to the gender roles and stereotypes forced upon them by society. Even in more recent times we've had terms like tomboy and ladette. Women have been saying things along these lines for so so long. She didn't mean she was actually a man, she meant she was as capable as a man. So when she talks of having a man's soul it is far more likely to be said in the same context that Elizabeth I spoke of having "the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king". ![]() While that article acknowledges that she would not have had the language to describe gender dysphoria etc it fails to take any notice that we also now use language differently. To imagine a future life that wasn't just marriage, childrearing and housework - was controversial and many women fought for something else. There were generations of "tomboys" who longed for and fought for the freedoms that were given to boys freely. She was a woman longing to be free of the limitations forced on her because she dared to be born female, like countless others before and after her. Check out /r/AskLiteraryStudies if you have questions about literature and literary studies that you'd like answered by experts! All are welcome.Spoilers must be marked by an alert and obscured with Reddit editor's spoiler masking system. Please do not seek feedback or instruction on your writing.ĭo not submit videos vaguely related to literature. This includes written work, social media, medium, youtube, apps, or any other material. This includes posting surveys.ĭo not submit any form of advertising or self-promotion. Content: Do not submit posts that contain questions and no other content.ĭo not request help on homework assignments (students) or curriculum content (teachers). Analysis: Submissions must include poster's own analysis in either the body or the comments of a post. Relevance: Submissions must relate to literature, literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, or literary news. We are not /r/books: please do not use this sub to seek book recommendations or homework help. Discussions of literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, and critical theory are also welcome. Welcome to /r/literature, a community for deeper discussions of plays, poetry, short stories, and novels.
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